Mohammad was forty before he began his mission of reform. He may long have doubted and questioned with himself, but at least outwardly he seems to have conformed to the popular religion. At length, as he was keeping the sacred months, the God’s Truce of the Arabs, in prayer and fasting on Mount Hirā, “a huge barren rock, torn by cleft and hollow ravine, standing out solitary in the full white glare of the desert sun,” he thought he heard a voice say “Cry.” “What shall I cry?” he answered. And the voice said:-- “Cry! in the name of thy Lord, who created-- Created man from blood. Cry! for thy Lord is the Bountifullest! Who taught the pen, Taught man what he did not know.” _Korān_, ch. xcvi. At first he thought he was possessed with a devil, and the refuge of suicide was often present to his mind. But yet again he heard the voice--“Thou art the Messenger of God, and I am Gabriel.” He went back to Khadīja, worn out in body and mind. “Wrap me, wrap me,” he cried. And then the word came to him:-- “O thou who art wrapped, rise up and warn! And thy Lord magnify, And thy raiment purify, And abomination shun! And grant not favours to gain increase! And wait for thy Lord!” _Korān_, ch. lxxiv. These are the first two revelations that came to Mohammad. That he believed he heard them spoken by an angel from heaven is beyond doubt. His temperament was nervous and excitable from a child up. It is said he was subject to cataleptic fits, like Swedenborg; and at least it is certain that his constitution was more delicately and highly strung than most men’s. If it is any satisfaction to the incredulous to find evidence of a special tendency towards hallucinations, the proofs are at hand. But whether the “revelations” were subjective or not makes no difference to the result. Whencesoever they came, they were real and potent revelations to the man and to his people.